By Prince Paul Amuzu:
The Director for Women in Agric Development, WIAD in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal in the Eastern Region, Madam Hilda Huadzi has attributed the inability of farmers to access credit facilities from financial institutions to their lack of commitment and not been credit worthy. She said farmers are not credit worthy and for that matter do not have the necessary requirements in terms of collateral among others to afford credit facilities and are also not reliable and committed.
Speaking as one of the panelists on Rite FM’s Agric Forum hosted by Krobea Asante on Saturday concerning the difficulties farmers go through in accessing credit facilities from financial institutions, the director said, ‘some farmers are not credit worthy and do not meet the necessary requirement by these financial institutions in terms of collateral among others and are also not reliable and committed. Some farmers take loans from financial institutions under the pretext of farming and extension of farms and at the end channel the money in to personal use and different businesses,’ she noted.
She said these developments have discouraged financial institutions from assisting farmers accessing credit facilities by channeling their resources into more reliable investments at the expense of agricultural developments.
‘The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), rural banks and other institutions are supposed to provide farmers with credit facilities either by cash or kind. It is their responsibility to provide farmers aside the physical cash loan with other credit facilities such as equipment, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides among others at affordable prices and rates. However, because the farmers are not reliable and committed as they take the loans and use it for different purposes aside farming. The financial institutions that are agriculture friendly have therefore shifted their attention to other reliable and committed investment at the expense of agriculture,’ madam Huadzi added.
Citing a very vivid example to buttress or justify her point, the director said a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by name Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) brought an initiative to Somanya in the Eastern Region and she was also part of the program in her capacity as Director of WIDA. According to her, farmers were given mango seedlings and maize seeds on credit basis.
Since mango is a long term investment, the farmers were given the maize seeds to plant and use the proceeds from the maize to pay for the mango seedlings. She said in addition to these, the farmers were given free rice, wheat and other foodstuffs to sustain them in the farming period but most of them sold the food items made for their consumption to sustain them and also left the mango seedlings to dry up and rot. Others, she added also used the loan given them for their personnel use and different businesses other than the intended purposes.
Source: ritefmonline.org
